Saturday, May 19, 2018

Cli-Fi? Literature, Ecocriticism, History -- academic paper by Martin Ryle

Cli-Fi? Literature, 

Ecocriticism, History

Chapter

Abstract

The recent period has seen publication 
of a good deal of ‘cli-fi’—
a literary term coined by Dan Bloom at 
the Cli-Fi Report about climate change. 
Teaching and discussion of this 
work raises the topic of global 
warming, and offers an opening 
for eco-criticism to address 
wider environmental questions. 
As a genre, however, cli-fi might be
somewhat limited. 
Its reliance on apocalyptic 
scenarios and its didactic tendency 
need to be examined.
 Its short historical perspective 
cannot address the long history of fossil-fuelled industrialism. 
Critical analysis of more complex 
novels by Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan 
reveals some contradictory 
mplications of recent l
iterary engagement with 
climate change, while brief 
discussion of earlier fiction 
(by Austen, Hardy and Lawrence) 
shows how the novel as a genre is 
well placed to present 
and analyse the ambiguities of progress.

Keywords

Margaret Atwood Cli-fi Dan Bloom 
The Cli-Fi Report
Climate change Global warming 
Eco-criticism Industrialism 
Ian McEwan Progress Speculative fiction 

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